Watch These Huge Silverback Gorillas Turn Into MMA Fighters and Maul Each Other

This gorilla fight filmed at St Louis Zoo in Missouri has already been watched more than three million times. It features a confrontation between two silverback gorillas with a third gorilla trying to get involved at times. The confrontation is intense and violent. It involves a lot of pushing and shoving as well as quite a lot of grunting. At one point, the gorillas spill over a cliff and into the moat. One of the gorillas tries to get away but is pursued by another one. As we see in this clip, things are not always calm in the gorilla enclosure!

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What Is a Silverback Gorilla?

Gorillas may look quite similar to humans but they develop about twice as fast as we do. You will see the young crawling at three months and some of them start to eat plants at around two months. By the time they are six months old, they can run on all fours and climb trees by the time they are seven months.

Young gorillas are called juveniles when they are between three and six years of age. When they reach between six and eight years of age they are called sub-adults. Females reach maturity at around 10 years of age. Males begin to get silver hair when they are around 10 years but they are not fully mature until they are 18 years old. Up until that point, they are called blackbacks. Young silverbacks are aged between 12 and 15 years but a true silverback is a gorilla who is aged 15 and older. He will have silver hair from his shoulders to his rump.  

How Do Gorillas Normally Behave?

The gorillas at St. Louis Zoo are western lowland gorillas. They are social animals who live in groups of between two and 32 gorillas. The groups are made up of around four to six adults and their offspring. In charge of the group, there is a dominant older male — the silverback. Then, there are between three and four females and young of various ages. There can be conflict between the females as they compete for access to the males but the silverback usually intervenes to sort these out. Apart from that, there is very little aggression within the group.

The same cannot be said for relations between silverback males. They can exchange explosive displays of aggression that include chest beating and hooting. Violent fights can take place between adult males as they strive to retain the mating rights of a particular group. It is not uncommon to see silverbacks with wounds and scars from previous bites. We hope that this particular confrontation was resolved without serious injury.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Philippe Clement/Shutterstock.com